Abstract

This article sought to estimate the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy (VH) among French general practitioners (GPs) and to study its demographic, professional and personal correlates. We conducted a cross-sectional telephone survey about GPs’ vaccination-related attitudes and practices in 2014 in a national panel of 1,712 GPs in private practice, randomly selected from an exhaustive database of health professionals in France. A cluster analysis of various dimensions of VH (self-reported vaccine recommendations, perceptions of vaccine risks and usefulness) identified three clusters: 86% of GPs (95% confidence interval (CI): 84–88) were not or only slightly vaccine-hesitant, 11% (95% CI: 9–12) moderately hesitant and 3% (95% CI: 3–4) highly hesitant or opposed to vaccination. GPs in the latter two clusters were less frequently vaccinated and reported occasional practice of alternative medicine more often than those in the first cluster; they also described less experience with vaccine-preventable diseases and more experience with patients who they considered had serious adverse effects from vaccination. This study confirms the presence of VH among French GPs but also suggests that its prevalence is moderate. Given GPs’ central role in vaccination, these results nevertheless call for a mobilisation of stakeholders to address VH among GPs.

Le MaréchalM, CollangeF, FressardL, Peretti-WatelP, SebbahR, MikolF, et al. Design of a national and regional survey among French general practitioners and method of the first wave of survey dedicated to vaccination. Med Mal Infect. 2015;45(10):403-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medmal.2015.09.005 PMID: 26494319

Submit your article here

Share

Tools

On 21 February 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) published recommendations on the composition of the vaccines for the 2019/20 northern hemisphere influenza season. Considering recent changes in the proportions of genetically and antigenically diverse A(H3N2) viruses, WHO will announce the recommendation for the A(H3N2) component later, on 21 March 2019. Read more.